Have you ever wondered why we don’t see square windows on airplanes?
If you have flown even once with someone airplanethen you will surely have noticed how the windows which are in his cabin have round shape and there are no corners.
But why don’t airplanes have square windows? The truth is that square-shaped windows existed until the beginning of the decade 1950but two terrible accidents happened. Two de Havilland Comet models, one from Rome to London and one from London to Johannesburg, crashed a few months apart in 1954, killing 56 people. These fateful flights also changed the history of commercial aviation.
According to the control of the authorities, it appeared that the “culprits” of these accidents were the square windows, which caused the planes to “disintegrate” in the air. In fact, they found that 70% of the total pressure that received the plane in the air was concentrated at the sharp corners of the windows. This was their weak point, since they could not withstand air pressure.
Somehow, since then the design of airplanes has changed. Square windows gave way to round ones, which due to their shape distribute evenly all the pressure and are much stronger.
A more accurate explanation is that round holes in a thin tube are more suitable due to the structure and are less prone to breakage. Stress cracks can lead to explosive decompression and destroy the entire structure.
Some airplanes have oval windows because round windows require extra space, so by extending them vertically, more surface area can be achieved. At the same time, they have three glasses, the outer, the intermediate and the inner.
